A mother from Nanticoke is facing felony charges after her infant son overdosed on cocaine last month and nearly died, city police say.

Nanticoke police arrested 19-year-old Amber Morgan late Friday afternoon, charging her with endangering the welfare of a child.

The allegations stem from an incident Jan. 8 when city paramedics were called to Morgan's mother's Church Street home for the report of the 1-year-old child having a seizure from an accidental prescription drug overdose.

However, multiple toxicology screenings indicate the only drug in the baby's system was cocaine, police say.

"When a mother doesn't tell the truth to us to help her own child, that is very disturbing," Nanticoke police Chief William Shultz said. "The child could have died."

Morgan was arraigned late Friday afternoon by Magisterial District Judge Donald Whittaker, who ordered Morgan to the Luzerne County Correctional Facility in lieu of $75,000 cash bail.

Shultz said the child nearly died from the ordeal, spending days in critical condition in the hospital. He noted Morgan initially tried to cover up the overdose, trying to induce the baby to vomit with a baking soda/apple juice cocktail for 30 minutes before calling 911.

"Those moments were very critical," Shultz said.

Morgan still claims she doesn't know how the cocaine got in her baby's system, Shultz said.

The child is now living with his father. Police arrested Morgan at Luzerne County Children and Youth, where she was having a supervised visit with the child, Shultz said.

Even if the baby had overdosed on prescription drugs, Morgan would have been charged, but the grading would have been a misdemeanor, Shultz said. Her willful "course of conduct" to cover up the reason behind the overdose allowed police to charge her with a felony, he said.

"She continued to tell us, EMS personnel, paramedic, hospital personnel, that the only drugs in his system were the grandmother's prescriptions. None of those drugs were in his system. It came back as cocaine," Shultz said.bkalinowski@citizensvoice.com